Tesla’s once-leading photo voltaic enterprise is in decline, in line with the most recent figures from its fourth-quarter 2023 earnings report.
The automaker revealed on Wednesday that its photo voltaic deployments cratered by 36% to a complete of 223 megawatts (MW) final yr, down from 348 MW in 2022. Though excessive rates of interest slowed photo voltaic development in some markets, Tesla’s shrinkage got here as the USA notched a report yr general; the U.S. added 33 gigawatts of photo voltaic capability in 2023, per estimates from SEIA, a photo voltaic business group.
It was a nasty yr for Tesla photo voltaic — its worst since 2020. If we zoom in, the ultimate quarter of 2023 seems to be worse nonetheless.
In This fall 2023, Tesla’s photo voltaic deployments dropped 59% year-over-year to 41 MW — down from 100 MW in This fall 2022. Other than blaming rates of interest, the agency provided no different rationalization for the wattage decline. No less than a part of the blame might fall on a shift in Tesla’s technique from installer to provider. The automaker laid off a few of its personal photo voltaic installers final yr and cancelled numerous scheduled “solar roof” installations, per Electrek. Tesla bought SolarCity a little bit greater than seven years in the past, for $2.6 billion.
Subsequent to photo voltaic, Tesla’s vitality technology and storage enterprise is booming (surprise, surprise). The corporate stated its vitality storage deployments — which embrace Powerwall residence batteries and utility-scale Megapacks, topped 14,724 megawatt hours (MWh) in 2023, up by 125% from the yr earlier.
Regardless of the general growth, Tesla commented that it expects some volatility in vitality deployments quarter-by-quarter, and the agency’s This fall outcomes present as a lot. The automaker deployed 3,202 MWh in This fall 2023; down from the prior three quarters, however up in the event you evaluate that determine to the identical quarter a yr earlier (This fall 2022).
The size of Tesla’s residential photo voltaic enterprise isn’t what it as soon as was. But, industrial and residential batteries nonetheless play a key position within the swap to renewable vitality sources, as they retailer intermittently out there clear vitality for later use. Such batteries also can assist communities, and even entire islands and states, put together for excessive climate by lowering peak demand on the grid and offering backup vitality throughout outages.
